Web of lies

Chapter 2

As we entered the parking lot of our public school, we spotted Caitlyn's friends perched on the benches near the school doors, waiting for us. I'll be honest-they were more Caitlyn's friends than mine. I didn't dislike them, but they had interests that seemed weird to me, especially Zaïda. She was genuinely bizarre. The other day, she told me she wanted to drink snake skin to see if it would remove her dead pores. She was serious. I just ignored her weird and nasty thoughts, which I believed she could've kept to herself. But hey, who am I to judge?

There were four of them: Zaïda, Lindsey, Nicole, and Luna. I either hung out with them or spent time alone, constantly misjudged by Josh.

Josh was worse than you might think. He absolutely hated my guts.

We used to be good friends before Caitlyn came along, but I guess old friends pass away, and new friends appear. It's like the days-an old day passes, a new day arrives.

So, I stayed with all five and kept my mouth shut.

"Shouldn't you all be in class? We're like super-duper late right now," I said.

Zaïda laughed before answering, "We wait till the full squad arrives before we leave. Duh." It was a known rule of their girl code: we all enter at the same time.

I sat in the front while the other girls took seats in the back. I didn't feel left out. It was more complex than that.

I knew they were my friends, but I didn't feel any real connection with them-except for Caitlyn. She and I had experienced a lot together and shared similar tastes.

With the others, it was more a matter of proximity than genuine interest. Maybe if I had made more effort back then, things could've been different.

"Ladies, don't think I wouldn't notice you all being extremely late. Especially you, Clara, who decided to sit in front of me. Maybe it's not only algebra you're having trouble with," Mr. Giovanni said disapprovingly.

I didn't know how, but that man had hated me since I started taking his class. He purposely said things to embarrass me in front of everyone.

Remarks like, "You must want to redo this year if you think you're getting through with horrible grades," or calling me an "undistinguished teenager who lacks knowledge and manners."

But I guess I can forgive him, knowing he might only have a couple of years left.

Looking at his hair color or his posture, you might think he has a couple of months. My mom always told me that people who lack compassion look 20 percent more unattractive. I believe that's true because this man looked worse than our former yellow president.

I shrugged off his comments and started apologizing, but Luna stepped in.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Giovanni. There was huge traffic, so we couldn't come earlier than this. We'll do our best to prevent it," she said, flashing her blue eyes, blonde hair, and nice smile at our ancient teacher.

In my book, this looks a lot like pedophilia, but maybe I'm overreacting.

Mr. Giovanni, who looked like he was from the primeval era, continued his lesson about God knows what because I didn't understand half of what he said. After 50 minutes, I picked up my books and put them in my backpack.

Trying to avoid eye contact with Josh, I quickly left the classroom in a hurry. As I left, I accidentally bumped into someone else.

Luckily, it wasn't Josh. But he did look familiar. I recognized him by his height. He was tall-really tall. He had dark brown eyes, black hair, a firm build, and a very strong jawline. He looked like a runway model.